Women's Rights Programme (WRP)

The Women’s Rights Programme (WRP) is both a programme within APC and a network of women throughout the world committed to using technology for women’s empowerment. We promote gender equality in the design, implementation, access and use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and in the policy decisions and frameworks that regulate them.

Feminist mix with a tech fix

The WRP is made of feminists and activists who believe that ICTs have a strong role to play in transforming gender and social relations. In our ranks are techies and trainers who help women’s organisations and other civil society groups take control of the tools they use to advance their mission and advocacy. More than 175 women from 35 countries – librarians, programmers, journalists, trainers, designers, scholars, researchers, communicators – come together online to work jointly in various projects in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe and Latin America.

Gender and ICTs

The power of ICT tools and platforms for advocacy and organising has long been recognised by women’s rights activists. ICTs have been effectively used to document abuses, redefine history and build knowledge. They have helped disseminate information, mobilise support and amplify the pressure for change. New web-based applications enable internet users to easily publish content, control their own data as well as form digital communities – shifting the power dynamics between information creators, owners and users.

Technological paradigms, assumptions about users’ realities, institutional configurations, policy priorities and legislative frameworks must be developed with the participation of women’s movements in order to reflect and respond to women’s diverse knowledge, realities and needs.

The WRP seeks to apply the tremendous transformative capacity of ICTs to strengthen women’s movements and women’s rights agendas.

Taking control of technology

We aim to build capacity within women’s movements in the creative and strategic use of ICTs so that they can shape technology. This in turn gives these women the chance to explore the convergence between ICT issues and women’s rights agendas. We develop tools and resources for fostering a gender analysis of ICT projects and policies. Our work is expressed through several initiatives that we implement internationally with our members and partners. Our work areas are: